Me Marie-Hélène Dubé

For over twenty years, Marie-Hélène Dubé, lawyer and family mediator, has been practicing family law, a field she loves above all for its humanity. A devoted mother of three, her personal experiences have enhanced her perspective on family law. She provides legal advice to her clients about divorce, custody, parental alienation, international abduction, alimony and child support, common-law partners and filiation cases, and represents her clients in Superior Court and before the Court of Appeal.

Me Dubé has appeared twice before the Supreme Court of Canada. She assisted Me Eva Petras, now a judge of the Superior Court of Quebec, as amicus curiae to the Supreme Court of Canada (Bibaud c. Québec (Régie de l’assurance maladie), 2004 CSC 35, [2004] 2 R.C.S. 3). With Me Anne-France Goldwater, she argued a case concerning the right to the Jewish religious divorce (Bruker c. Marcovitz, 2007 SCC 54, [2007] 3 S.C.R. 607).

She has acquired extensive experience in constitutional law by participating in several major cases. From 2000, Me Dubé fought against discrimination faced by gay and lesbian couples, helping them obtain the right to marry partners of the same sex. The Quebec Superior Court agreed which led Canada to become, in 2004, the third country to legalize gay marriage.

From there, Me Dubé attacked the problem in Quebec of inequality between families formed by married couples and families featuring unwed couples. She devoted the five years that followed to helping build the case of Eric v. Lola, with the goal of obtaining rights for unmarried spouses in Quebec. Because of the highly-publicized case, a family law reform in Quebec law is forthcoming and the rights of unwed couples will be one of its main focal points.

Aside from fighting for the rights of same-sex and unwed partners, she also tackled the discrimination faced by Quebec’s single mothers and their children, denouncing the inadequacy of the Quebec Child Support Guidelines.

The challenges the legal system faces in order to meet the needs of families from ethnic backgrounds is another area of interest for Me Dubé. She has authored articles and has given conferences on issues of common-law spouses and child support guidelines.

Marie-Hélène Dubé is fluent in French, English and Creole. If she were not a lawyer, she would be the author of a 21st century adaptation of La Comédie Humaine.